In a brutal July 26 terror attack in France, the Rev. Jacques Hamel was killed by the islamic State group in a brutal fashion.

Hours later, a prominent Iranian-born writer for The Wall Street Journal announced that he was converting to Roman Catholicism.

In a piece for the U.K. Catholic Herald, Sohrab Ahmari said that his path from his Shia Muslim upbringing to Catholicism was a long and winding one, but because of Hamel’s sacrifice, he felt the need to announce it even before he was fully received into the church.

“On July 26, I announced my decision to join the Catholic Church. Hours earlier, a pair of jihadists had attacked a church in France and murdered a priest, (Father) Jacques Hamel, while he was celebrating Mass,” Ahmari wrote.

“Two months before that, I had begun studying one-on-one with a priest in London, reading Catholic books and immersing myself in the catechumen’s life. But I had no intention of going public with my conversion, not until after being received into the Church,” he wrote.

“When news of the killing first broke, I knew next to nothing about (Father) Hamel. Photos online showed an octogenarian priest with wispy white hair and a look of quiet, ordinary holiness.

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“This priest, this man, had been forced to kneel and had his throat slit in the name of ISIS — an evil act that demanded a response. So like any good millennial, I took to my Twitter account and wrote: ‘#IAmJacques Hamel. In fact, this is the right moment to announce I’m converting to Roman Catholicism.’ It was an impulsive thing to do, not exactly in keeping with our Lord’s teaching to be as wise as serpents.”

Ahmari said he began having problems with religion as a youngster in Iran.

“At school, I had already begun clashing with my Koran teacher, whose real job was to inculcate students in the regime’s ideology, a mix of Shia chauvinism, anti-Americanism and Jew-hatred,” he wrote.

“When we returned from holiday, I escalated the war at school. Had I been a bit older it would have landed me in jail. But I was emboldened by the knowledge that soon my mother and I would be granted U.S. green cards and immigrate to America.”

From Islam, he became an atheist. Then it was onto existentialism and Marxism.

“My hunger for God persisted, though, and I’d feel the pangs most acutely in moments of great shame,” Ahmari wrote.

“My life’s overall trajectory was upward, but it was marked by bursts of dangerous anger and self-destructive behavior. Shame begat shame, and the cycle repeated itself, even as I went from material success to success. I needed something or someone to break the cycle.

“Twice following bouts of heavy drinking in my early 20s I found myself instinctively, almost spontaneously, going to Catholic Mass. I really couldn’t tell you why, but I just sat in the back pews and felt waves of peace wash over me — without having any clue as to what was going on.”

Eventually, he decided to pursue Catholicism officially.

“So I returned to the Mass. And eventually I knocked on that priest’s door and told him that I wanted to become a Catholic. ‘OK,’ he said simply. ‘I shall instruct you.’ Now, I can pray, more often than not without feeling a shred of hypocrisy, ‘Hail, Mary, full of grace …’ And add with confidence: ‘(Father) Hamel, pray for us.'”